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Night of the Crow
The Night of the Crow is one of the darker chapters in the history of the Penitent Knights Space Marine Chapter. This is the lamentable event that occurred when the traitorous Order of the Crow succumbed to the temptations of the Ruinous Powers and willingly turned on their brothers. Eventually, they embraced the worship of the Chaos Gods wholeheartedly, and these traitorous Space Marines became wholly corrupt - body and soul - becoming the Crow's Children Chaos Warband. History Long before their betrayal, the Order of the Crow was notorious for being a bellicose and unforgiving company of the Penitent Knights Space Marine Chapter. On several occasions, their excesses had to be reigned in by their Chapter' s Chaplains, and on more than one occasion they were reprimanded by Lord Crusade (Chapter Master) Lithandros himself. Led by Knight Captain Daedelus, a bellicose and malevolent soul, this battle-brother should never have risen to a position of command within the Chapter, but his prowess as a warrior and reputation as a superlative tactician were often reasons enough to overlook some of his more...extreme excesses. But following one particular campaign (which was deleted from the Penitent Knights archives) Knight Captain Daedelus and his warriors were formally reprimanded by Lithandros for their dishonourable actions and the collateral damage left in the wake of the Order of the Crow's assault, which resulted in an extreme loss of life amongst the Imperial civilians. Instead of choosing to gravely punish Daedelus and his restless subordinates for disobeying orders, in his wisdom, he forced the Order of the Crow to humble themselves by forcing them to perform mundane patrol duties to protect the populated planets near the Aegimius System, the Chapter's Fortress-System. Unfortunately, the machinations of the Ruinous Powers are insidious, and they would not easily give up their potential prize, and so, through fate (or direct influence, though none can say for sure) when this force entered the Warp upon Lithandros' Battle Barge, Brotherhood, they were set upon by a massive daemonic incursion in the ship. Mysteriously, the Gellar Fields on many of the Penitent Knights' vessels began to fail, and soon the Neverborn began to materialise aboard their ships and began massacring the ships' mortal crews. During the height of the fighting, the Order of the Crows turned upon their brothers and assisted the daemons in killing those aboard the Brotherhood. This slaughter started in the lower decks, the daemons appearing and killing all the crewmen and stray Knights that stood in their path. Lord Scholar Pellidan Carinus, the Chief Librarian, alerted Lithandros to the invasion of Chaos, directing the Lightbound to lock down choke points along the Brotherhood to either contain or slow the daemonic tide while Pellidan worked to speed them out of the Warp. It was at that point that the Crows turned, opening fire and throwing grenades at the backs of the Paladins of the Lightbound. However, the Order of the Lightbound raged and held off their traitor brothers and daemons for hours before the Battle Barge exited the Warp, the entire Order of the Lightbound slain during the betrayal. The Paladin Captain Fortareis was cut down saving Lithandros from a fatal blow. Their mutiny only partly successful, what remained of the Order of the Crow fled into the Warp with their new daemonic allies, to rebuild and give themselves wholly to their Dark Gods, eventually becoming the Crow's Children Chaos Warband. Over the next few centuries, the Crow's Children began to raid and pillage across the entirety of the Asteria Sub-sector, leaving only grief and rubble in their wake. The new Chaos Marines reveled in their bloodshed, taking what they pleased whenever they desired. Once, they were noble warriors of the Emperor, but by the corroding influence of Daedelus and the Ruinous Powers, they razed worlds in the name of the Dark Gods. So much did they enjoy wanton slaughter and decadence, that Daedelus offered the entire Sub-sector to the Gods, including their loyal brothers, the Penitent Knights. Category:Chaos Category:Chaos Campaigns Category:Chaos Space Marines Category:Crow's Children Category:History